1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assembly formed, on the one hand, of a mobile trolley intended for transporting medical equipment or the like and, on the other hand, of an attachment support structure that can be fixed to a ceiling or to a wall, for example a ceiling mount for hospitals, with one or more arms which may or may not be articulated, comprising at least one column fitted with means of fixing the said trolley.
2. Description of the Related Art
Support structures, particularly ceiling mounts with one or more arms which may or may not be articulated, are commonly used in hospital establishments, particularly in operating theatres, anaesthetist or treatment rooms, where these structures are generally fixed to the ceiling so that they overhang the operating tables or the beds occupied by the patients.
Conventionally, these ceiling mounts or the like fulfil several functions, namely:
they support all or some of the equipment and apparatus employed during treatment; PA1 they fulfil functions of storing some of the equipment; PA1 as they are generally articulated and support the apparatus, they allow easy and alterable movement of this apparatus around the bed or operating table; PA1 they contain all of the ducting conveying the gases or medical fluids, and the electric power supply cables for the treatment apparatus. PA1 an attachment support structure, such as a ceiling mount, intended to be fixed to a ceiling or to a wall comprising at least one arm equipped with at least one column of vertical axis (x-x') and fixing means allowing the said support structure to be fixed to a ceiling or to a wall, PA1 a mobile transport trolley, PA1 attachment means borne by the said trolley cooperating with receiving means borne by the said column and capable of allowing the trolley to be fixed and secured to the said column , and PA1 lifting means borne by the said trolley capable of allowing at least the lifting of at least part of the trolley after the said trolley has been fixed to the column. PA1 the mobile trolley comprises several castors, preferably at least 4 castors; PA1 the trolley also comprises support means, preferably trays, shelves or the like, the said support means being fixed to at least one trolley column borne by the said trolley; PA1 the trolley furthermore comprises retaining means arranged on the trolley column allowing the trolley to be kept pressed against the column at least when the trolley is attached to the said column and is raised off the floor; PA1 the column is essentially cylindrical and the retaining means are provided with a bearing surface that comes into contact with the column; PA1 the attachment means comprise at least one attachment hook, preferably at least two attachment hooks; PA1 the receiving means fixed to the column comprise at least one, and preferably at least two, attachment pins, at least one attachment pin being able to cooperate with at least one hook borne by the said trolley. PA1 the mobile transport trolley is brought into contact or close proximity with the column, PA1 the attachment means borne by the said trolley are fixed, i.e. attached, to receiving means arranged on the said column so as to make the attachment means cooperate with the said receiving means, PA1 the trolley is lifted by activating the lifting means in such a way as to raise at least part of the said trolley.
Customarily, a ceiling mount comprises at least one base element intended to be fixed to the ceiling or to the wall, and on which one or more ceiling mount arms, which may or may not be articulated to the said base element, is or are mounted, which ceiling mount arms may be formed as several sub-parts articulated together.
In general, a ceiling mount arm, articulated or otherwise, comprises a column of vertical axis to which there are permanently fixed support elements capable of receiving treatment apparatus, trays or other elements for storing medical or similar equipment.
Mention may, for example, be made of existing devices comprising, at the lower end of their vertical-axis column, a kind of pod equipped with drawers, shelves and other storage accessories.
Such devices are in particular described in documents EP-A-0257299, EP-A-0614035, EP-A-0614036, EP-A-0614037, WO-A-94/29636, EP-A-0681822, EP-A-0603093, WO-A-94/27549 or GB-A-2083878.
However, the ceiling mounts described in the prior art exhibit certain drawbacks.
Thus, the existing devices customarily comprise one or more columns on which the various support elements are either permanently, that is to say irremovably, fixed, or fixed in such a way that they can only be rearranged with respect to one another if numerous manipulations, such as disassembling the said supports then subsequently reassembling them onto the column, are performed, which manipulations are generally accompanied by the need to disconnect and move all the items of apparatus arranged on the said support elements.
It will be readily understood that such manipulations are, on the one hand, tricky and irksome and, on the other hand, inadmissible given the loss of time they entail, the risk of damage to the treatment apparatus and the complexity of interconnecting the various items of apparatus.
A partial solution to this problem is provided by documents U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,683 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,765 which describe a system consisting, on the one hand, of a ceiling mount equipped with a column of vertical axis and, on the other hand, of a mobile trolley for transporting medical equipment, this trolley being fitted with castors allowing it to be moved. The column is equipped with means comprising parallel rails that can receive the mobile trolley and raise it in an upwards movement to lift it off the floor. The manipulating of the medical apparatus thus becomes easier, given that this device makes it possible to avoid any tricky moving of the apparatus; the apparatus and/or other items of equipment being placed directly on the trolley.
However, the lifting system proposed by these documents is rather complex, given that it employs rails that can move in terms of translation and in terms of rotation and which are actuated by cranks and gears arranged on the column.
Furthermore, this system has the drawback of being very bulky, especially with the trolley absent, and really rather incompatible with use in a hospital environment, particularly because of the presence of the rails and rail supports which are liable to form veritable "traps" for dust and germs.